City Farmers

PIP COURTNEY, PRESENTER: This is a story about a coming together of two different cultures - the city and the country. A Melbourne couple's love of food and wine set them on an unexpected journey and the creation of an unlikely farming partnership.

SALES ASSISTANT: Coonawarra Bridge. Our winemaker, Sandrine, is from Ardeche in France. And she did a champagne internship, so she loves bubbles.

KERRY STAIGHT, REPORTER: South Australia's Coonawarra region and its famous terra rossa soils attract many city dwellers to the state's south-east, usually for a spot of wine tasting.

GAYNOR MACFARLANE: Miles has a love of wine and we've done quite a few wineries. And it's - Coonawarra was a place where he really wanted to come and visit, so we headed up this way.

KERRY STAIGHT: While they ventured off-road regularly in search of cellar doors, Melbourne couple Miles and Gaynor Macfarlane and friend Margaret Hutchesson bypassed farms - that is, until they visited the Coonawarra.

MARGARET HUTCHESSON: On the way home, Gaynor said, "The only thing that was missing from this weekend was a look at a real farm." And I said, "Well, I can organise that."

KERRY STAIGHT: That real farm is Warrawindi, a 1,000-hectare sheep and cattle property near Penola owned by Margaret's relatives. It specialises in prime lamb and vealer production. When Miles and Gaynor first arrived five years ago, shifting a flock of sheep was still on their bucket list.

GAYNOR MACFARLANE: We've really had no farming experience. I've never been on a working farm before. Seen them from the roadside, but that's about it.

KERRY STAIGHT: The couple quickly discovered to make livestock follow like sheep takes an experienced hand. And fourth-generation farmer David Galpin is certainly that.

GAYNOR MACFARLANE: I remember my first experience when we came onto the farm, David and Alison said, "Would you like to actually take part in going out and checking the lambs?" And we thought, "Oh, yeah, this sounds OK - sitting on the back of the quad bike and going out and we enter into the paddock where the lambs are being born." And Alison says to me, "Well, look, you can catch that lamb and weigh it." Now this lamb still had steam coming from it. It had only just been born. And I could not catch it.

KERRY STAIGHT: Handling the livestock isn't the only hurdle. At times, common farming terms sound like a foreign language.

MILES MACFARLANE: The perception I had of marking sheep until we come up here was totally different to what we ended up doing on the day. So ...

KERRY STAIGHT: What was it?

MILES MACFARLANE: I just thought we had - I was thinking more like branding sheep with a bit of paint, but obviously, you know, marking the sheep's a lot more involved. We put tape on the tails and things like that.

DAVID GALPIN, WARRAWINDI, PENOLA, SA: They were green and it was just so funny. They just didn't know any terminology, but they were just so keen to learn and find out where food comes from and how it's produced.

KERRY STAIGHT: The couple might not look as comfortable in the yards as their instructor. But David Galpin says they've come a long way.

DAVID GALPIN: When they first got here, it was - they was just standing back and, yes, weren't sure about anything and now it's hands on. They want to jump in and have a go. Gaynor, at the bull sale, we had her washing bulls' bums and getting her hands dirty and every time they come here, we try and do something a bit different.

KERRY STAIGHT: From squirting worm medicine into sheeps' mouths to vaccinating them, today's lesson is one of the most demanding. But the pair keeps coming back and is now bypassing wineries to spend extra time on the farm.

While some say talk of a city-country divide is blown out of proportion, especially with growing interest in where food comes from, farms are still foreign places to many urban dwellers. In fact, recent figures from Meat Livestock Australia found 55 per cent of people surveyed have never been on a sheep or cattle property.

From the everyday farm jobs to the all-important auctions. While Warrawindi's annual ram sale doesn't draw everyone's attention, the mature-age students are soaking up another part of their agricultural education.

It's not just the running of this farm that fascinates the couple, but the dedicated family behind it. David and Alison Galpin have six children and the three girls and three boys all pitch in to make this property profitable.

MILES MACFARLANE: You always hear about the families that leave the land and the children that don't take any part in what's going on and we've seen the complete opposite here on the Galpins' properties, that everyone is passionate about the land and what they do. And, you know, it's been really good over the last five years to actually watch the boys grow into being farmers as well.

KERRY STAIGHT: And these wannabe-be farmers are also keen to contribute. Not just by serving up lunch at the sale, but by spreading the word about what it takes to get the meat from paddock to plate.

DAVID GALPIN: There's a lot of bad press I suppose about farming and meat production, but just to show them how we look after our animals and how they're treated and it's been good. They're promoting what we do. They're in the other side of the industry in Melbourne too. They're actually in the same industry that we are, but they're just on the other end of it.

KERRY STAIGHT: Back in Melbourne, Gaynor is a merchandiser for a smallgoods company and her husband has spent the past four decades working for one of the major supermarkets. In these roles, they've seen how most of the meat supply chain operates, just not the first bit.

MILES MACFARLANE: We actually always get to see the end product as well - that's the sellable product for a consumer to buy. And I think it's just interesting that we can get out here and actually see where it all starts.

KERRY STAIGHT: In return, David and Alison see where it all ends. When the farmers head to the big smoke, their apprentices introduce them to Melbourne's restaurant scene. And the roles are reversed.

DAVID GALPIN: For us to go out to a meal is to go to the footy club or the pub. To go to a flash restaurant and eat food that you can't pronounce on the menu is - has been quite interesting. So - and that's where a lot of our food ends up.

GAYNOR MACFARLANE: David's just amazed at how they cook the meat, the different ways that we actually get to taste the meat that he raises on the farm here.

KERRY STAIGHT: While these forays into fine dining have opened the Galpins' eyes to the endless possibilities of their produce, focusing on food has long been an important part of their farming strategy.

DAVID GALPIN: A lot of farmers class themselves as cattle or sheep producers. And when you think of yourself as a food producer, it changes the thought process and the way you look at your animals.

KERRY STAIGHT: There's also an opportunity for the Macfarlanes to continue their agricultural studies in the city at the Royal Melbourne Show. While there is plenty of attention to detail in the grooming, it's what's under the hide that really counts. Which is why the Galpins have invested in Limousins, a French breed that's unfamiliar to many, including Miles and Gaynor.

DAVID GALPIN: They had, like most city people, thought that Angus were the only breed that were out there. So, there's lots of other breeds. We've tried just about every breed of cattle and ended up with Limousin. Easy carving and they're very high yielding. So that combination is profitable. That's what it comes down to in the end: making money.

KERRY STAIGHT: And that's what brings the family here.

DAVID GALPIN: We've had the cattle stud for nearly 25 years now and our competitors were getting more money for their bulls. So we had to sit down and look at what we were doing and what they were doing and the only difference was that they were showing cattle, so they were marketing their stock better. Since we've been showing the last six years, we've now lifted our bottom line up to where everybody else is, so we're sitting up there with the best of them.

KERRY STAIGHT: The Galpins have also invested in genetic improvement programs for their livestock, which in turn leads to a better performance in the ring.

JORDAN GALPIN, WARRAWINDI, PENOLA, SA: A lot of people still think the Limousin breed are mad because back in the day, they were.

MASON GALPIN, WARRAWINDI, PENOLA, SA: They were.

JORDAN GALPIN: But they have changed a lot since.

MASON GALPIN: Yes.

KERRY STAIGHT: What do you mean when you say mad?

JORDAN GALPIN: Like ...

MASON GALPIN: Temperament.

JORDAN GALPIN: Temperament, yes. They'd put you up the rail or - but now, no, we've changed them and - yes.

MASON GALPIN: Yes.

JORDAN GALPIN: To how we want them.

KERRY STAIGHT: While this is essentially a money-making exercise for the Galpins, it's another day in the classroom for their students. And the official verdict delights both trainees and teachers, with Warrawindi taking top honours.

As the family enjoys parading their grand champion cow, Gaynor hopes her efforts on the farm lead to similar results.

GAYNOR MACFARLANE: I would love that, would love to be able to do that. I'd love to have a big bull on a lead and just walk it around.

KERRY STAIGHT: And if things go to plan, that bull will be hers. As well as learning how to handle livestock, the 55-year-old has bought her own.

DAVID GALPIN: It first started when - on one of their first visits when we had a bull tied up in the yards ready for a show and Gaynor just fell in love with it. And Miles had just spent a lot of money on some bottles of wine and Gaynor wanted to buy an animal.

KERRY STAIGHT: So a deal was struck. She bought a cow and owned any bull calves it produced, while the Galpins looked after it and kept any offspring that were heifers.

DAVID GALPIN: On her investment of $4,000, her first bull sold for $6,000 and then her next one sold for $3,000. So, she was - got pretty good return on her money.

KERRY STAIGHT: With those returns, she's now upgraded, going in halves with the Galpin boys on a $14,000 champion female that will hopefully produce another generation of show winners.

And what started as an unlikely coming together between city and country could eventually turn out to be a perfect partnership in other ways.

GAYNOR MACFARLANE: David and Alison always talk about wanting to go overseas and see the farms in Canada and France and we'd love to be sitting there at the table one day and get the phone call to say, "Hey, we need some extra hands up here on the farm."

DAVID GALPIN: The way they're learning and their enthusiasm, yes, I'd be quite happy to pack my bags and leave them to it and let them run the farm for a while.